Saturday, April 28, 2018

April 28 Radio History

➦In 1922...WOI-AM, Ames, Iowa, became the country's first licensed educational radio station.

The history of WOI can be traced back to 1911 when Physics Professor "Dad" Hoffman set a transmission line between the Campus Water Tower and the Engineering Building and set up a wireless telegraph station. By 1913 this was known as experimental station 9YI and it was sending and receiving weather reports by morse code on a regular basis. The first sound broadcast was an hour of concert music on November 21, 1921.

The Commerce Department issued a full radio license for station WOI in April 1922 and the first regular broadcast took place on April 28, 1922. It is the oldest fully licensed noncommercial station west of the Mississippi River. The original callsign 9YI is now W0YI and is retained by the ISU Campus Radio Club, with the amateur radio station located in the Electrical Engineering building. The first regular programming on WOI was farm market reports gathered by ticker tape and morse code and broadcast throughout the state.

➦In 1932..."One Man's Family" was first broadcast on the NBC Radio Network.

One Man's Family, was an American radio soap opera, heard for almost three decades, from 1932 to 1959. It was the longest-running uninterrupted dramatic serial in the history of American radio. Television versions of the series aired in prime time from 1949 to 1952 and in daytime from 1954 to 1955.

One Man's Family debuted as a radio series on April 29, 1932 in Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco, moving to the full West Coast NBC network the following month, sponsored by Snowdrift and Wesson Oil. On May 17, 1933, it expanded to the full coast-to-coast NBC network as the first West Coast show heard regularly on the East Coast. The show was broadcast as a weekly half-hour series (1933-1950) [sustained by Standard Brands from 1935 through 1949], then shifted to daily 15-minute installments, initially originating from the studios of San Francisco radio station KPO, NBC's flagship station for the West Coast, eventually moving to Los Angeles.

➥In 1958...Herb Oscar Anderson starts at WMCA. HOA died last year.

➦In 1972...Arthur Godfrey does last CBS Radio Network show.

Godfrey 1948

Godfrey became nationally known in April 1945 when, as CBS's morning-radio man in Washington, he took the microphone for a live, firsthand account of President Roosevelt's funeral procession. The entire CBS network picked up the broadcast. Unlike the tight-lipped news reporters and commentators of the day, who delivered news in an earnest, businesslike manner, Godfrey's tone was sympathetic and neighborly, lending immediacy and intimacy to his words. When describing new President Harry S. Truman's car in the procession, Godfrey fervently said, in a choked voice, "God bless him, President Truman." Godfrey broke down in tears and cued the listeners back to the studio. The entire nation was moved by his emotional outburst.

Godfrey made such an impression on the air that CBS gave him his own morning time slot on the nationwide network. Arthur Godfrey Time was a Monday-Friday show that featured his monologues, interviews with various stars, music from his own in-house combo and regular vocalists. Godfrey's monologues and discussions were usually unscripted, and went wherever he chose. "Arthur Godfrey Time" remained a late morning staple on the CBS Radio Network schedule until 1972.

➦In 1965...at 3 p.m., Top 40 radio visionary Bill Drake took over KHJ-930 AM in Los Angeles, and introduced the ‘Boss Radio‘ format, featuring the top hits of the day, quick jingles, fast DJ talk, and fewer commercials. Drake installed his protege Ron Jacobs as PD. KHJ hit #1 within six months and was quickly copied across North America.

The format featured a restricted playlist and restrained commentary by announcers (although a few, such as Robert W. Morgan, Charlie Tuna, Humble Harve and The Real Don Steele, were allowed to develop on-air personalities). Other DJs from 1965-68 included Roger Christian, Gary Mack, Dave Diamond, Sam Riddle, Johnny Williams, Frank Terry, Johnny Mitchell, Tommy Vance, Scotty Brink, Steve Clark, Bobby Tripp, Tom Maule and Bill Wade. Part of the format, known as "Boss Radio", were jingles by the Johnny Mann Singers.

"Boss Radio" spread throughout the U.S., bringing high ratings to KFRC in San Francisco, WFIL in Philadelphia, KGB in San Diego, WQXI in Atlanta, CKLW in Windsor, Ontario and WRKO in Boston. Drake and Gene Chenault brought many of their announcers from the other "Boss" stations, using them as a proving ground for talent.

The format brought high ratings to the station until the late 1970s, when FM radio became the dominant form of music broadcasting. In November 1980, during the Bob Shannon show, "93 KHJ" switched from top-40 to country music. The country format, with the slogan "We all grew up to be cowboys", lasted three years before it was changed to an oldies format: "The Boss is Back", with the original Johnny Mann Singers "Boss Radio" jingles, on April 1, 1983.In ➦1975…Influential radio disc jockey/programmer/manager (KSAN-San Fracisco, KMET-Los Angeles, KPPC-Los Angeles, KMPX-San Francisco, KYA-San Francisco, WIBG-Philadelphia)/record label owner (Autumn)/concert promoter (Beatles at Candlestick Park)/Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tom Donahue, inventor of "free form,""deep cuts" and "classic rock" radio, died following a heart attack at age 46.

➦In 1987…For the first time, a compact disc of an album was released before its vinyl version. The album was "The Art of Excellence" by Tony Bennett.

➦In 2006…After radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was accused by Florida prosecutors of "doctor shopping" for painkillers, his attorneys announced a deal under which a single prescription fraud charge would be dismissed after 18 months, provided Limbaugh remained drug-free and did not violate any laws.